ABOUT TOWER STUDIO

Hi. My name is Brett Caldas-Lima. I'm a French producer and multi-instrumentalist and I founded Tower Studio in 2004. I am located near Montpellier, in the South of France.

I offer world-class recording, reamping, mixing and mastering services with a specialization and expertise in prog, rock and metal, and have worked on records to date.

Being a musician myself (I was in a band called KALISIA), I can definitely relate to your fears, expectations and desires. I know what it's like to entrust a stranger with your creative baby. We speak the same language!

My goal is to help you fulfil your vision, reach your full potential, and develop your unique personality. This is my philosophy. I do not apply recipes, presets, templates, guitar amp simulations, nor do I force fit you into a mold that would be detrimental to your art. I want the world to Hear Your Difference.

I hope you will find here what you have been looking for. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions!

SOME CLIENTS YOU MIGHT KNOW

RANDOM DISCOGRAPHY

I am very often asked: why "random" discography and not "selected"? Bigger bands attract more clients so why not just feature them, or the best-selling albums? Well, because I like to give the same chances and exposure to everyone, and I respect ALL my clients. No matter how big or small, I treat them fairly and equally. Up-and-coming acts can see their names next to the bands they love and get a sense of accomplishment and pride. Nobody is swept under the rug. Call me an idealist, but I’m also a firm believer that tomorrow’s biggest bands are today’s small ones, and I’d love to be a part (however small it is) of their success.

THEY TRUSTED TOWER STUDIO

TESTIMONIALS

* Although I reckon he might have not said that about "me" specifically ;-)

RECORDING

Location

I'm located in Montpellier, in the sunny South of France, 10km from the sea. I've established solid relationships with very nice studios around these parts.

Bands on a budget will usually find that the cheapest way to record with me is to get me to come to them and either to book a studio in their area, set aside a room in their house or rent a space for the duration of the recording sessions. I've made some pretty crazy places work - there have been sessions in garages, bedrooms, lounges, bars backrooms, even a church...

That said, if you can afford it, coming to my studio is obviously your best option.

When recording I use top quality gear from the finest companies: RME, Universal Audio, Audio-Technica, Audix, Neumann, Rode, Shure...

Prepare For Your Recording

Here's a non-exhaustive list of what you'll need to do to prepare for a productive recording session.

Get a professional to set up your guitars and basses (or do it yourself if you know what you are doing). An instrument with poor intonation simply will not sound, feel or play as good as that very same instrument coming fresh from a decent setup. Your instrument is the sound source, and that source needs to be in good shape before we capture it. Please don't skip this step and don't rely on studio gear to automagically make a badly intonated 49.95€ guitar with a chronic case of fret buzz perform like a guitar worth 3000€. That just isn't possible.

Drummers should bring new drumheads, the best cymbals they can afford, and fix any rattling noises or other weird sound anomalies being caused by their pedal chain. Fixing things like that during the actual recording sessions wastes time, and consequently wastes your money.

If you come to record drums here with me, know that I have access to a huge backline of about 10 stunning drum kits (DW, Ludwig, Pearl, etc) and more than 50 snares (!!!).

Bring some spare drumheads, sticks, strings, picks etc. Having to call a halt to a session when there was a great vibe for a simple oversight like running out of sticks is always a downer, no matter how close the local music shop might be.

I can provide some for you but if you have a set of headphones or your own IEM (in-ear monitors) that you particularly like or are comfortable with, bring them with you! This is especially true for you sweaty drummers ;-)

You need to do your homework. By this, I mean that you should know precisely what your role is (I can help with this if I'm producing). Most importantly, you need to be able to play yours songs in your sleep! Our task is to capture the essence of your performance, so brush up on the technical aspects ahead of time until you feel like you know the songs inside out. I promise you, there is no room for "is this the right note here?" or "what's the next riff there?" on a record that you'll be proud of in years to come.

PLAY WITH F**KING ATTITUDE even without an audience in the studio, because it does make a difference to the final result and to your listeners!

Yes, I can and will help if you're struggling, but I'd rather not do the job instead of you, you will feel much better if you achieve things yourself. There is a tendency today to believe a computer can fix every bum note and do the hard work for you. I'll admit that this is true to some extent (and is become even more true day after day), but music (at least, music that I work on) should be played by humans and should not sound obviously quantized, autotuned or so "fixed" that it's lost its essence (unless that's exactly the aesthetics you're after). Computers do not have a soul (not even Macs), they do not get goosebumps, they cannot love music like we do, so don't place the quality control of your music entirely in their "hands".

Plus, you will undoubtedly look like an idiot on stage if you can't play what's on your record anyway...

The above is just a 50/50 mix of common sense and advice that has built up over the years. But I obviously will not force you to do anything you don't want to. If your vision supports the sound of an out of tune guitar with rusty strings, that's what we'll record. Hey, something good might come out of it as well, as there's rarely only one right way to do things. Experimentation is the way to be new and fresh.

Recording Rates

REAMPING

What is reamping?

Reamping allows me to take a dry, unprocessed, unaffected guitar or bass sound and send it through high-end amplifiers, resulting in a recording that sounds exactly as if the musician was plugged directly into that amp.

The artist must have recorded his parts by connecting the instrument into a DI unit (a Direct Input or Direct Inject buffer box) that was fed to a recording console or soundcard.

The most obvious advantage to the reamping technique is that it gives the musicians access to real tube amps they couldn't have afforded otherwise. It also places the duty of recording said amps into the experienced hands of yours truly.

Killer tone isn't just in your fingers, so put it in the right hands.

Reamping your guitars

I'm offering a guitar and bass reamping service for your music.

I have access to a VERY wide choice of amps from the most prestigious and best guitar amp companies in the world, including (but not limited to):

Reamping Rates

MIXING

Please keep in mind that the guidelines below are just suggestions. They are presented as common-sense advice in your best interest to make working together as smooth as possible. They may be useful to anyone who may have not collaborated with an outside mixing engineer before and might not know what procedures to follow. In essence, these guidelines were meant to HELP you. I'm probably not the monster you think... I might be worse, haha.

Prepare your files for mixing

So if you have already recorded, the next steps before sending your songs to mix are:

Edit your tracks: your tracks must be edited (for example if the drummer's performance needs tightening) before sending them to mixing. If vocal tuning is needed, I can do that here (but that's an additional service).

Clean up your tracks: remove unwanted noises, and send me the right takes. If it shouldn't be heard on the record, then you shouldn't be sending it to me without a very clear explanation of why it's been included.

If you used Virtual Instruments, bounce them to audio files.

Consolidate regions, items, clips or whatever your DAW of choice calls them, so that all files start at bar 1. That way, I'll just have to import the files and everything will be aligned perfectly in Pro Tools. This is the simplest way to transfer your material, even if some of the time it might mean that a guitar solo has 3 minutes of silence before it. You can use wav or aiff format.

Pro Tip: if you zip your files, all silences will be compressed to almost nothing, so you'll gain A LOT of space.

Export mono sources to mono and stereo sources to stereo. For every mono source you send as a stereo file (doubling its size and e-carbon print for nothing), a dolphin dies.

Rename the files using a convention that will make sense for someone who is not in your head, and keep this format consistent throughout all your songs.

I can't stress this enough: please make sure that you've included only the correct files and that nothing is missing. You should test each song by importing the files into your DAW and check that everything is present and aligned. It may sound obvious to you but trust me, it's not so obvious to most.

If you recorded to a click, export the tempo map and any time signature changes as MIDI files for each song, and include those files. If there's just one tempo for one song and it's all 4/4 then just make a note of the tempo value.

Create one folder per song, then place any audio files you want me to use in a folder called "Audio". Please don't put files in subfolders like "Drums" or "Guitars", just name the files mindfully.

If possible, include a rough mix of each song. I might want to refer to it to figure out what's the main line, the lead instrument, where the emphasis should be, etc. If you don't have rough mixes but know what you want or what you DON'T want, make notes for me in a text file.

Of course, you can just leave all that up to my interpretation. If I'm wrong, don't worry, nothing is undoable. Feel free to include an extra folder containing some songs from other bands that you like the sound of. I'll keep that vibe in mind as I mix, but I'll always stop short of making you sound like a clone.

If your songs contain very complex choir parts, intricate 200+ tracks of samples, or heavily orchestrated sections, my advice (if you can) is to premix those and send me stereo stems. Put those stems in the main "Audio" folder and the original rough files in a separate folder called "Slave".

And finally, tell me which song you want me to mix first. Choose one that's representative of your music, one that sets the tone for the whole collection of songs that I'll be mixing for you.

When you're ready, compress each song in a zip file and share them with me online (WeTransfer, Google Drive, iCloud Drive or whatnot, just please don't use Dropbox, I hate it...). If your internet connection is not reliable enough, put all of those files onto an external USB hard drive and send it by mail. No matter what, always keep your own copy of those files in safe places (yes, you should always have several backups in different locations). Keep in mind that I will not send your drives back.

Once I receive the files, I'll work on the first song and upload a mix to my secure private server. It will then be up to you to tell me what you like, what you don't like, and what I should change. Some mixes can take a few trials and errors before they'll meet your expectations (especially if you know exactly what you want), so don't be afraid to give me your honest opinion.

The advantage of this unattended mixing process is that you will be able to hear the mixes in listening environments that you know well (your home studio, your car, on your buddy's hi-fi...) as many times as you need. We'll systematically work through and hone each song to perfection in turn.

I generally master my own mixes as I go, but if you want to have your material mastered somewhere else, I will provide the unmastered mixes. Exported stems (separated mixdowns of your drums, bass, guitars, etc) are possible at a small additional fee.

Before you record

If you're going to record in another studio or do it yourself, and you want me to mix the material, here are a few recommendations.

First, please read everything on the "RECORDING" tab as that advice is just as relevant here.

Record in 24 bits. 44.100 kHz is just fine, but you can record at higher rates if you want to.

Take pictures of the recording setup and send some to me in a folder. Any knowledge I can gain of where microphones were positioned etc will be a big help at this end, especially with drums. Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

If you have the possibility, record the drum trigger signal for the drum kicks, snare and all toms. Just put a trigger on each drum, and plug the XLR out into the mixer / sound-card / whatever device you're recording with. No expensive drum module is necessary here, I'm only interested in the transducer signal (a click sound that occurs each time the drummer hits). Remember, sending me triggers doesn't mean that I'll automatically replace a kit sound you've worked hard to craft. It's simply that trigger recordings are always very helpful when I'm gating individual tracks, and if I do HAVE to replace anything, I'll be able to do it efficiently. Aside from the additional technical possibilities they open up, it's always good to have an extra record of the performance for security. Plus, they work great as drums muffles.

Tune those drums. This is very, very important! If your drummer doesn't know how to and nobody in the studio can help with that either, hire a pro to come and do it. Even another local drummer with knowledge of tuning can make a positive difference.

I highly recommend that you record and send me isolated hits for every elements of the drumkit. Don't think, just do it, you'll thank me later.

Please don't rely on me to fix dire tuning, pops, crackles, clicks, rattles or any undesired noise under the mixing microscope. Spend a little extra time to get it right on the way in. Get the sound at the source. It must sound good to begin with to sound great in the end. There's no magic, computers can't turn shit into gold, "I can't polish a turd" (...but I can spray paint gold over it").

Same applies to your performance.

If drum editing is necessary, be sure that's done before recording any other instruments, as the other players will instinctively lock in with the drums and the overall feel of the band will be better as a result of working in this order.

Check the tuning on your guitars and basses at all times. That means before each take.

Mute the strings you don't use on a riff by riff base. Use foam, tape... Dampen the strings of your guitars above the nut (between the nut and the tuning pegs), below the bridge, and dampen your Floyd-Rose springs with a tissue. You'll be surprised the difference in clarity this will make.

Do not apply EQ or compression or anything else on the way in unless you're 100% sure that you know what you're doing.

Record a DI signal of guitar and bass tracks alongside your mic'd signal. This will be useful in case the mic'd signal isn't usable or doesn't fit. If you want me to reamp sounds, I will need those DI signals. If you're recording in a studio, the guys there will know what to do. If you're doing it yourself, take some time to learn about the subject as this is quite critical.

Mixing Rates

MASTERING

What is mastering?

My definition of mastering is: mastering fixes problems you didn't know you had in ways you don't understand. But since I reckon this is not good enough as an explanation, I found this article online which is clearer and better written than anything I could come up with, so...

"Mastering is a technical as well as a creative process, the last step in the realization of your musical vision.

The program material is checked and corrections are applied if needed. The sound is balanced and enhanced in order to convey the best possible experience to the maximum number of listeners across a wide range of playback systems.

Individual songs are sequenced and seamlessly bonded together into an album like musical chapters in a book.

The combination of a set of experienced ears, and a selection of high quality creative and corrective tools in a revealing monitoring environment with the fine attention to details ensure your creative efforts are both competitive with other releases and ready for duplication.

Communication between the engineer and the artist or the A&R is extremely important in order to achieve a highly satisfactory result.

It is also very important to understand what happens during a mastering session and avoid some of the misconceptions and myths regarding this important step in the production process.

A mastering session can be generally speaking divided into two phases: checking for and correcting problems if needed and the production of so called “parts”. Listening through a very accurate monitoring chain will reveal problems or shortcomings that may have occurred during the mixing stage due to less than perfect room acoustics, not so accurate speakers or excessive tiredness. If those problems exist they will then be corrected with specific tools such as equalisers (used to create an even frequency balance), narrow band compressors (de-essing of sibilant vocals or taming of overly fizzy cymbals) and wide band compressors and limiters (used to glue the elements of a mix together).

Once the correct balance and the desired perceived level is achieved the songs are assembled into a sequence within the mastering workstation, PQ codes are generated, ISRC and barcode embedded if needed and a physical master (either CD-A disk or a DDP) is created and checked before being sent off for duplication or replication."

Mastering Your Music

I'm offering a mastering service for mixes I've worked on, as well as for mixes done at other studios.

You must provide me with stereo mixdowns of each song (with or without fades, it doesn't really matter to me) in the original resolution / sample rate at which they were recorded/mixed at. If you have thoughts on what you're hoping to hear from the mastering process, or things you'd like to avoid, add them in a text file. Also, feel free to include an extra folder with some songs from other bands and albums that you like (I mean the overall sound, not necessarily the music). I'll take a critical listen to those examples and keep them in mind as I work. Please make sure that any song references you include are Wav files, not lossy over-compressed mp3.

Mastering in-the-box allows for consistency, automation and total recall of plugin parameters, so I can provide as many revisions of your first song as it takes for you to be totally satisfied.

I do not use presets during mastering and think it's a very bad idea to do so.

I do not charge for individual revisions or bill by the amount of hours I spend on your material as neither never really seemed fair to me. I mean, who can tell if a studio is charging you 5 hours for something that took them 2? At Tower Studio the price is set by the length of your material, so you can be certain of the cost beforehand - no nasty surprises.

Upon approval, delivery of the master will be made electronically using my private secure server as 16 bits / 44,1 kHz wav files (unless you specifically require another format).

Album Sequencing

I can also sequence your album. If you requested this, I'll deliver a DDP file that you can send straight to your pressing plant for duplication. DDP is the industry standard for master delivery, the safest method and is accepted by most reputable factories. With this option you will also receive a customised DDP Player software (Mac and PC compatible) that will allow you to listen to the audio, verify your DDP files, check CD Text, create RedBook compatible audio CDs, export lossless wave files and much more. The normal value of this software alone is 59€.

If I'm sequencing, I will require you to send me the ISRC codes for each song and a UPC/EAN code for the album. The process of obtaining those codes varies from country to country, so if you're unsure about any of those terms, please Google them or ask your record company as soon as possible.

Physical copies of your master can be posted to you. I can provide DDP on a DVD, or good old-fashioned audio CDs in your mailbox if you'd prefer that (3 copies: 2 sealed units for the duplicators and 1 for your ears). If this is required, just let me know and provide a valid address.

Test Mastering

Of course, any mastering studio can claim to make your mixes shine and take your money, but how do you know what they'll really bring to the table? This is why I offer a test master of one song (3 minutes max length, delivered to you in mp3 format) for a very small fee (50€), so you can decide whether my interpretation is the right one for your music. If you do like my work and ask me to master the rest of the songs, half of that fee will be refunded.

Mastered For iTunes (MFiT)

I also offer the option to deliver your masters in High Definition for the Mastered For iTunes (MFiT) program, allowing you to get the best possible sound with as little sound quality loss as possible. I am certified by Apple as an official MFiT Provider so that means your releases will get better visibility on Apple Music / iTunes and can be badged and marketed as "Mastered For iTunes" (Apple gives better placement to those). The good news is that these masters can also be used for other High Definition Digital Retailers.

Vinyl Premastering

The vinyl format is becoming increasingly popular again, but truth be told, it suffers from a lot of technical limitations. Extra care must be given to the master to prepare your music for vinyl replication. I'll be happy to do that for you and deliver the premasters as high resolution wave files.

Stem Mastering

For bands who want optimal results, or anyone who's aware that their mixes are not as well balanced as they would've liked, I'm offering a stem mastering option/upgrade.

Stem mastering is different from 2 track stereo mastering. It uses a number of grouped instruments such as kick, snare, toms, rest of drums, bass, rhythm guitars, lead guitars, clean/acoustic guitars, keyboards and vocals.

This approach provides additional scope for me to discretely enhance specific subsets of instruments, gives me more flexibility if there are any problems that slipped under the radar during mixing, and allows for a greater enhancement based on the summing of the stems. Additionally, standard stereo mastering processes are included. Stem mastering can produce subjectively improved sonic results.

It is worth clarifying some differences between stem mastering and mixing. Mixing relies on equalisation, fader and send automation, effects, tuning etc, and at times a heavy-handed approach to these aspects is used. Stem mastering takes a much subtler approach to EQ, dynamic adjustment and occasionally automation, but tuning and effects are a rarity at this stage. Essentially, it's another way to get the most out of that fresh set of ears in a highly linear monitoring environment by giving him some extra room to manoeuvre.

If you feel your mix lacks width, depth, warmth, punch, glue, dynamics... then stem mastering might be the right choice for you.

How do you prepare your tracks for Stem Mastering:

Export your stems from exactly the same time code position in your digital audio workstation timeline so they will synchronize when I import them.

A good set of stems must "sum" or combine to sound identical to your stereo mixdown when all stems are played back at unity gain. Note that any processing your had on your master bus will be lost. If your mix depends on that processing, maybe stem mastering isn't the best choice for you. You can safely apply your static processing (equalization, reverb, etc) to each separate stem though, but dynamic processing (compression, expansion, limiting etc) will not react the same. If you mixed in the box, I can probably replicate your master bus compression settings though (depending on what plugin you used) so it's worth checking with me beforehand.

Notes or pointers on any sonic issues that have been of concern during mixing such as "bass line sounds muddy, drums require more punch" could be useful.

Also please confirm any aspects of the mix you are happy with, so I can avoid changing things that you like.

Please remember to send your stereo mixes as well for refence.

Mastering Rates

DISCOGRAPHY

Display as:

Use the Search field below to filter the table results.(ex: type "mix" to show records I have mixed, "france" to show bands from France, "prog" to show Prog bands, etc)

You can also sort the results per column by clicking on the up/down arrowsbut please note that it will take several seconds to refresh and your browser might become unresponsive until it has done its thing.

CONTACT ME

RATES

RECORDING

I don't have fixed rates for recording, so send me an email to explain what you're looking for. It's usually cheaper for me to come to you (travel expenses, accommodation and food for one person are obviously cheaper than for five people). So give me as many details as you can, and let's see if we can make this happen.

MIXING

Every mix is different. So if you want to get a fair and accurate quotation for your project, please answer these questions in your inquiry email:

• What is the name of your band?

• Do you have a web site or a place where I could hear your music?

• Are you signed or independent?

• What type of music do you play?

• How many musicians and which instruments are played on these songs?

• Do guitars and bass need to be reamped?

• Are the drums midi or acoustic? (no judgement here, but acoustic drums usually take way more work)

• How many songs will you want me to mix?

• How long does your album last in total?

• Do you also want me to master your music?

• How will it be (or has it been) recorded? (professional studio, home studio, live...)

• When do you want the mix to take place? Do you have a tight schedule?

Seems like a lot of questions I know, but if I have all that info in front of me, you can be sure I'll offer you the best price and quickest turnaround that I can.

To give you a ballpark figure, album mixing usually costs somewhere between 1.500 and 4.500 euros (mostly depending on the number of songs, the total length of the album and your schedule flexibility).

Then, each two-songs, a discount rate is applied:
- 30€/song for the next 2
- 20€/song for the next 2
- 10€/song for the next 2
- then each additional song is free.

One song = approximatively 5 minutes max

Songs over 5 minutes count as two, over 10 minutes count as three, etc. If some of your songs are 5:30 or something like that, contact me and we will discuss it.

One record = 78 min max

Do not contact me with 4 hours of material hoping that only the first 8 songs will be charged for and that you'll get 27 songs done for free (it happened). As much as I love reamping, I've got bills to pay and a cat to feed. If you've got a lot of reamping to be done, or you want to share the setup time and amps with someone else, contact me and we can discuss that.